Li Xiang, Danell Ryan M, Pinnick Veronica T, Grubisic Andrej, van Amerom Friso, Arevalo Ricardo D, Getty Stephanie A, Brinckerhoff William B, Southard Adrian E, Gonnsen Zachary D, Adachi Tomoko
Center for Space Science & Technology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Danell Consulting, Inc., Winterville, NC, USA.
Int J Mass Spectrom. 2017 Nov;422:177-187. doi: 10.1016/j.ijms.2017.03.010. Epub 2017 May 21.
The Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA), a dual-source, ion trap-based instrument capable of both pyrolysis-gas chromatography mass spectrometry (pyr/GC-MS) and laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS), is the core astrobiology investigation on the ExoMars rover. The MOMA instrument will be the first spaceflight mass analyzer to exploit the LDI technique to detect refractory organic compounds and characterize host mineralogy; this mode of analysis will be conducted at Mars ambient conditions. In order to achieve high performance in the Martian environment while keeping the instrument compact and low power, a number of innovative designs and components have been implemented for MOMA. These include a miniaturized linear ion trap (LIT), a fast actuating aperture valve with ion inlet tube. and a Microelectromechanical System (MEMS) Pirani sensor. Advanced analytical capabilities like Stored Waveform Inverse Fourier Transform (SWIFT) for selected ion ejection and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) are realized in LDI-MS mode, and enable the isolation and enhancement of specific mass ranges and structural analysis, respectively. We report here the technical details of these instrument components as well as system-level analytical capabilities, and we review the applications of this technology to Mars and other high-priority targets of planetary exploration.
火星有机分子分析仪（MOMA）是一种基于离子阱的双源仪器，能够进行热解气相色谱质谱分析（pyr/GC-MS）和激光解吸/电离质谱分析（LDI-MS），是ExoMars火星车核心的天体生物学探测仪器。MOMA仪器将成为首个利用LDI技术检测难熔有机化合物并表征宿主矿物学的航天质谱分析仪；这种分析模式将在火星环境条件下进行。为了在火星环境中实现高性能，同时保持仪器紧凑且低功耗，MOMA采用了许多创新设计和组件。这些包括小型化线性离子阱（LIT）、带离子入口管的快速驱动孔径阀以及微机电系统（MEMS）皮拉尼传感器。在LDI-MS模式下实现了诸如用于选定离子喷射的存储波形傅里叶逆变换（SWIFT）和串联质谱分析（MS/MS）等先进分析功能，分别能够实现特定质量范围的分离和增强以及结构分析。我们在此报告这些仪器组件的技术细节以及系统级分析能力，并回顾该技术在火星及其他行星探索高优先级目标中的应用。
